Naturalized Americans, What Moment Did You Realize you Were a XXX-American, and not a XXX Living In America?

18 comments

1. Got here in 2002. I’m going to say right around when I joined the US Navy in 2009.

2. Not a Natrualized American but I grew up in an immigrant neighborhood so I know litterly hundreds.

   How “American” you become depends on how different your culture is from America, your individual effort, where you live, and how old you are when you came here.

   A young French person moving to Ohio is going to likely integrate faster than a granny from Serbia moving to NYC if she integrates at all.

3. Not long

   Way before I got citizenship.

4. I’m a Permanent resident and even now I see myself as just “American,” not “xxx-American.”

   That reminds me I gotta do my taxes for this year so I can apply for citizenship.

5. This has been up for 3 hours and not one person has slipped in a porn joke from “XXX-American”. This really is a mature subreddit.

6. Born here, but raised in Korea.

   Funnily, I don’t love neither country (but like both), but when I found myself defending America from others, lol. Like, I have dual citizenships, so it’s not like I’m stuck here.

7. Not me, but for a buddy of mine, it was when he submitted paperwork renouncing his PRC citizenship the day before his US citizenship naturalization ceremony (and then joined the marines).

8. Interestingly enough when I traveled to Peru (my birth country) as a teenager. For context, we had gone every summer since we left when I was six years old. I became naturalized through my mother (who became a U.S. citizen when I was 11). So I was used to being in Peru and never really felt out of place.

   Now, this was when the Iraq war was going on. I didn’t agree with it and detested it. However, I didn’t like the anti American sentiment that that stemmed from it during those years. I found myself defending America and taking offense with negative comments about Americans.

   It’s then that I realized I wasn’t a Peruvian living in the USA. But I was an American who had happened to be born in Peru. I still hold love for Peru and it’ll remain important to me.

   But my worldview and perspective is American and my loyalty is to the USA.

9. The sad part about this question is that it isn’t when did you realize you were AMERICAN, and nothing but AMERICAN?

10. I’m a French-American, and there wasn’t a moment, I just kept being me the whole time, and who I am keeps changing.

11. Before I even naturalized when talking to people back in Canada became increasingly frustrating.

    Also when I made a native American dish for Thanksgiving (I’m Métis) to be cheeky and it immediately became a smash hit that my in laws now routinely demand at holiday dinners.

12. I live in Taiwan and work with people who’ve lived in the states for extended periods and act more American than Taiwanese. One even converted to Christianity during her time in Texas and prefers to read the Bible in a English because that’s the language she spoke the most when she was exploring her new faith.

13. When we went back to our home country for a visit, and my daughter tried to fold a slice of pizza NY-style. (It didn’t work).

    Seriously though, I think it happens when you go for a visit and catch yourself thinking “Why are these people so …”, such as “Why everyone stands so close when they are talking to me?”

14. My ex said it was when she started talking about the weather when there was nothing else to talk about

15. Citizenship took about 5 years, feeling proper Americanized about 10. Reading history books and understanding finally the small inconsistencies that had bugged me over the years helped a lot with the process

16. I wasn’t even naturalized yet when I started feeling American. Maybe because I was young. Once I started going to school I kinda stopped thinking about my motherland. And my school had mostly immigrants

17. English-American living here since 05’, 27 now. Few years back I Went 90% thru the naturalization process, paid the fees, took 3 trips out of state to the office, just for them to tell me I had to finish probation for a traffic ticket and then restart the whole process, pay the fees again, alla that. Basically since then I’ve said fuck it, I feel more American than half the people I run into I don’t need a slip of paper telling me what I am. Not payin over 1000$ again.

18. Dang, I had no idea I wasn’t American. I haven’t watched a football game (outside of pep band) in almost a decade at this point.